


Faith Lost (Faith Found)

by MaidenM



Series: Ferdibert week 2020 [4]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst, Azure Moon Route, Blue Lions Ferdinand von Aegir, Hopeful Ending, Hubert survives AU, M/M, set just after the last chapter, slightly shippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:53:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25943896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaidenM/pseuds/MaidenM
Summary: Hubert was dead. His heart was still beating, but he might as well have passed away already.He hadn’t bothered to keep track of how long he had been here, chained to a chair in a dank and dark cell. It could have been hours since he had woken up, it could have been days. All he knew was that when he woke up his whole body ached with the tell-tale signs of life-threatening wounds stitched close by magic and the crushing, horrible news that the empire had fallen.His Lady was dead. Killed in a final clash between her and Dimitri.Ferdibertweek Day 7: Alternate Timeline
Relationships: Ferdinand von Aegir/Hubert von Vestra
Series: Ferdibert week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876912
Comments: 8
Kudos: 76





	Faith Lost (Faith Found)

**Author's Note:**

> I... really wanted to write something like this for a while but now that I have I'm feeling weird, like I'm not good enough to write canon divergence. Which is bull, but I'm throwing it up here before I can sink any further in those feelings. I wanted to explore a few thoughts I have about the AM route, about Edelgard's transformation and how Hubert felt about working so closely with twsitd. If I was more confident, and didn't feel like I had to get this out before the week was fully over, I would have done a more thorough job I think.

  
Hubert was dead. His heart was still beating, but he might as well have passed away already.

He hadn’t bothered to keep track of how long he had been here, chained to a chair in a dank and dark cell. It could have been hours since he had woken up, it could have been days. All he knew was that when he woke up his whole body ached with the tell-tale signs of life-threatening wounds stitched close by magic and the crushing, horrible news that the empire had fallen.

His Lady was dead. Killed in a final clash between her and Dimitri.

What purpose did Hubert have to live on? He had failed her, he was meant to have died protecting her. He thought he had, for a moment. The only thing that currently kept him from biting his tongue until he bled and following her into the darkness was that he would be executed eventually, and this time…

When it was time he wouldn’t close his eyes as Ferdinand von Aegir charged at him. He wouldn’t falter, hesitate at just the wrong moment. He would die speaking his Lady’s name, head held high like a martyr so that no one would forget her.

The cell door creaked, a soft light spilling into his prison before it was eclipsed by the figure of a man. Ferdinand the Traitor stood there, one of the very last people Hubert wanted to see.

“Come to gloat?” he rasped after moments passed with neither movement nor noise from the redhead.

“To see you,” Ferdinand replied as he stepped inside, the heavy door closing behind him with a clang like a crypt. “I was worried you would not survive your wounds.”

“Worried?” Hubert spat. “You drove your lance through me, I don’t even understand how I survived!”

“I asked them to save you.” The admission was softer than Hubert would expect any word to be in his direction. “We wanted to spare you both,” Ferdinand added, eyes falling to the floor for just a few moments.

Hubert laughed bitterly, what drivel! “You expect me to believe that?” he sneered, the restraints creaking as his arms and legs pulled at them unconsciously. Ferdinand didn’t face him as he shook his head.

“No, I suppose you wouldn’t.”

The two fell silent, not even the distant noise of other prisoners wailing and screaming filled the air. Perhaps there was none. Perhaps they had spared Hubert for last. Gleaming green eyes regarded Ferdinand closely, something he had not had an opportunity to do for years. He wasn’t wearing his full armor, though his polished greaves and gauntlets shined even in the dim light of the cell. His hair was tamed into a low ponytail, waves threatening to coil around his shoulders anyway like ginger pauldrons. A holy knight before a sinner and a blasphemer, Hubert supposed it looked like now that his was a war he had lost.

“If you are here to take me to my execution, then get on with it,” Hubert growled. A grimache flashed across Ferdinand’s face for just a moment before he steeled himself and finally looked straight into Hubert’s eyes.

“I am not here to bring you to your death, Hubert. I am here to talk to you,” he spoke, his voice clear and warm.

“What could we possibly have to talk about?”

“The dark-robed mages, for starters. What did they do with Edelgard?” Ferdinand asked. “Did they cause her transformation?”

Hubert scoffed. “Transformation? A fine way of showing that you never truly knew her.” Hubert wanted to laugh, the desire for justice had always burned in his Lady. If these fools thought she had been deceiving them before she declared war then it was their shortcoming.

Ferdinand narrowed his eyes for a moment, before they went wide in realisation. “Did you… did you perhaps not know?” he asked carefully. “Do you not know what she was like when we reached the palace?”

Hubert’s face fell. “What do you mean?” Something that was difficult to look at filled Ferdinand’s eyes as the words left him. Pity, he realised.

“She was as if a mix between woman and demonic beast when we finally reached her. The dark mages, they brought other beasts to the battle but once we defeated them they fled the area. We did not have the manpower to chase after them.”

Ice flooded Hubert’s veins. It had not escaped his notice that as the war grew more and more desperate one or two of those bastards would always hover around his Lady. Especially after “Arundel” fell in Derdriu. As the Kingdom pushed further and further, they had found themselves relying on the damned beasts and the even more damned Slitherers, even as the Kingdom’s army marched into Enbarr Hubert had been forced to rely on their assistance and…

And it hadn’t been enough. Had his Lady been so desperate as to..?

“I don’t believe you,” he wheezed. “You are saying this to unsettle me, it will not work.”

The look of pity was back.

“If it makes you feel any better, she faced her end as herself,” Ferdinand murmured. “Like with the demonic beasts, the transformation was undone at her defeat but she still breathed as it did. She was given a chance to surrender.” Ferdinand’s mouth was set in a tight line as he seemed to ponder his next words. “She did not take it. It was her choice.”

Hubert stared before him, not really seeing anything. It was too much, the thought that Ferdinand might be lying and the thought that he might not be making him feel numb and unsure. He knew only one thing.

“I should have died with her,” he whispered. “Why have you not killed me yet? Am I to be paraded down the streets? Shown off to the people before I’m gutted like a pig?”

Ferdinand shook his head. “You too have to make a choice. On behalf of King Dimitri, I offer you the same thing we offered Edelgard; walk with us, and help us create a better world.”

Red flashed across Hubert’s vision and he snarled as he fought his restraints. “Don’t you fucking dare say that! My Lady-- Edelgard fought for a better world and you killed her!”

“We all fought for a better world, Hubert! Every last one of us!” The words echoed in the cramped space, the quick outburst of both men making the air thick with tension. “But you are the last ally Edelgard had who still lives,” Ferdinand said, quieter but with a fire still in his eyes. “You are the last person alive who knows what she fought for, what kind of world she wanted to make. I am offering you to serve her by choosing to live. She may be gone but you can still serve her vision, Hubert!”

Hubert sagged in his bonds, wanting to spit in Ferdinand’s face and tell him to kill him here and now but…

“What makes you think I even want to help you? A tense dance during the winter ball and a stolen kiss in the dark?” he asked hoarsely. Ferdinand huffed. It might have been a laugh or a sigh.

“Perhaps those moments, as well as the fact that you didn’t kill me at Gronder Field.”

Hubert flinched. He had hoped his… lapse in judgement back then had gone unnoticed. He had the redhead cornered back then, spell ready in his hand. He had let it fly, hitting the cavalier in the side. A non-lethal blow. And he had left, not even looking back much less finishing the job.

“... nor did you kill me at the palace gates,” Ferdinand added.

“... I thought…” Hubert began, voice thick as the words lined up. “I thought that perhaps… no, never mind,” he sighed and hung his head. How was he supposed to explain that his faith in his Lady was absolute, yet the reality of their defeat was becoming too strong of a possibility? How was he supposed…

How was he supposed to explain that if the world was going to lose Lady Edelgard von Hresvelg then perhaps it could make do with Ferdinand von Aegir?

After a tense silence Ferdinand spoke up again. “The dark mages--”

“Those Who Slither in the Dark,” Hubert interrupted.

“Sorry?”

“Those Who Slither in the Dark, that’s what I call them,” Hubert murmured, not looking up.

“Those who slither,” Ferdinand nodded, seemingly pleased to have something to call them. “They are the very same who kidnapped Flayn and killed Captain Eisner, are they not?”

“Yes.”

“And are they the same who kidnapped Lysethia and Hapi, the same group who tortured both?”

Hubert hesitated. “I am not sure about Hapi but I am quite sure about Lysethia, yes.”

“So you know a thing or two about them?” Ferdinand asked, taking one, two steps forward. Hubert kept his gaze down, staring at the tip of Ferdinand’s boots.

“I was forced to work with them for years, so I suppose I do,” he admitted. “We planned to bring them to justice once the war was over.”

Ferdinand kneeled before him, forcing him to look into amber eyes. “Then let me ask you once more. Will you help us? Dimitri knows they are the ones behind the Tragedy of Duscur, for that reason and more he is eager to hunt them down. Your assistance would be invaluable, if you would just… if you would just make the choice to help.”

Hubert’s mind pulled in several directions, but he couldn’t look away from those eyes that shined like the sun. “Do you truly think I could work alongside Edelgard’s killer?” he asked weakly, making Ferdinand sigh with a sorrowful expression on his face.

“No, but I will admit that I am hoping you would surprise me,” he said quietly, laying his hand on Hubert’s knee. Hubert could feel the warmth radiating from it. “You do not have to answer now, of course. Dimitri will ask you himself eventually. I just wished to give you time to think.” With a small squeeze to Hubert’s knee he stood up, giving the prisoner a hopeful smile as he did. “I will send for a healer to look at your wounds, please consider what I said. You… you are far from the only one who mourns Edelgard’s death.” With that, Ferdinand turned around and left with slow, gentle strides. The door creaked and slammed as Hubert was left alone once more.

In the darkness, no one was around to see him shed a lone tear for the future he had lost. But maybe there was some truth to what Ferdinand had said. Maybe there was a different path for him to walk.

Maybe instead of a crimson path he could walk under a blue moon.


End file.
